Last week I asked the question of whether or not anyone has found any big bargains out in the stores. I hadn’t found anything worth buying until late last week when I came across a ridiculously marked down 47″ Vizio LCD full HDTV at Wal-Mart. After being dropped a few hundred dollars there was no question about it and I had to get that television.
Aside from the television and an extended warranty plan I also picked up the items needed to mount the TV to the wall, a new DS game (which is interesting because I really don’t have time to play the thing these days), a bunch of new books from Barnes & Noble (thanks to a gift card from my older brother), a new luxury sheet set, new pillows for my bed, a new carry-on piece of luggage and travel kit, and some minor pieces of clothing. For what it’s worth, all of my cost cutting and budgeting over the last few years allowed me to purchase these items with no concern about long-term financial burden.
So…over the past few days I’ve done my part to help kick the economy in the ass!
Last week, USA Today posted an article talking about how the Nintendo Wii is still selling a record number of units - even two years after its initial launch. Here’s a little fun fact from the story:
Nintendo’s sales mark represents the most game systems sold in any month since November 2002, when Sony sold 2.7 million PlayStation 2 systems (priced at $200), Frazier says. The PS2 has gone on to sell about 43.2 million in the U.S.
A quick jump over to VGChartz.com shows us that Wii has sold 18.28 million units in the United States, which is a little less than 4 million more than its nearest competitor, Microsoft’s XBox 360. This number is also about 12 million more than the PlayStation 3, which would have almost certainly been cut as a product if Sony lost the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD war with Microsoft.
Anyway, the point here is that it is remarkable that the video game industry has only been marginally rocked by the market tumult. And it is even more impressive that Nintendo has managed to build a juggernaut system without the use of an internal hard drive or high definition graphics. Add in that the bulk of the games available for the Wii are family-friendly and generally leave the hardcore gamers out in the cold, and you have a real phenomenon in the video game industry.
As a guy who is financially invested in the successful outcome of at least one video game software company (which has not been mentioned in this post), I hope that the good news keeps coming in!
Are you searching for the perfect gift for your friends and family? Why not get them a SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio subscription!?
I might as well get this out of the way - I own stock in Sirius XM, so I’m obviously a shill for the company now. Sure, in the past I would get pissed off at Howard Stern and his ridiculous vacation schedule, but the truth is that I travel so much that listening to old-fashioned terrestrial radio is a bore now that I’ve been exposed to Sirius XM. Sirius XM offers entertaining channels, commercial-free music, the best in sports coverage, and a cable-TV-like line-up if you’re looking for news coverage.
And that’s what makes the SIRIUS XM service so great for me. I drive about two hours each day in my daily commute. If I was listening to old-fashioned terrestrial radio, then I would spend a good portion of that commute listening to commercials; and not just any commercials - the cheesy ones that they create specifically for radio listeners to grab your attention. Talk about a shitty commute!
So put aside the fact that I own stock in this company and that I am now shamelessly shilling for you guys to sign-up for this service - Sirius XM is really a great product. For those of you who do research into the behind the scenes view of companies like SIRIUS XM then yes, there are some large talking points regarding the management and the company’s finances. But that has little to do with the service provided by Sirius XM. I’m happy to talk to anyone more about the Sirius XM service and why you might want to get one of your friends or a family member a subscription this Christmas season!
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